Theatrical scenery



S. S. HORN.

THEATRICAL S'CENE'RY.

APPLICATION FILED IIIAII. 29, 192|.

Patnte Oct.. 11.7, 1922,

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

IIIIII mv I\ l I I I I I I I I I I I I I I l I I I l IIIIIII IIIIL I mama S. S. HORN.

THEATRICAL SCENERY.

APPLICATION FILED IIIAII.29. 192|.

1,43%463 mmm @au II?, 11922.

Patented @et l?, i922.,

liti-32,463?.

earner critics.

STEPHEN s. HORN, or BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

THEATRICAL sonnent. i

`Application filed March` 29, 195,21. SerialiNo. -456,5521.

[o all to 7mm t may conce/m y Be it known that l, @rari-inn S. HORN, a citizen of' the United States, and resident ot Brooklyn, in the county of'lings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful improvements in Theatrical Scenery, of which the following is a specification. y

The present invention relates to improvements in theatrical scenery of the multiplex type or that type wherein the same set of scenery may be manipulated and used tc simulate different interiors, eXteriors, or'- a combination of these and the like.

rl`he general object of the invention is to adapt a set of multiplex scenery so `that' the' same may be set up or struck with a minimum number of stage hands thereby elfecting an economy in point of stage labor and this without involving an increase in the time element of striking or setting up, the structure being such that thel operation of changing from one scene to another may be effected in a comparatively short inter mission.

` Another object is the provision of a multiplex set of scenery which may be adapted te provide for any desired number of scenes in that'the complete setting up of one scene permitted out of view from the audience while another scene is displayed.

To these ends the invention resides in turnable 'frames for supporting the wing sections, the said frames being constructed with a plurality of supporting surfaces eachv ot which is adapted to support any de sired piece of scenery and to ydisplay the same when turned into a predetermined relation to the stage platform, each oit said supporting` surfaces to be so constructed and arranged as to appear successively in view of the audience and thus display the scenery supportedL thereby when the wing pieces are turned. The said wing pieces are iiurther constructed so as to combine with ya pivoted ceiling piece arranged so as yto swing vertically and cooperating with wingpiecesl and thereby constitute a scenery ceiling.

Other objects will appear and be lbetter uri-- derstood in that embodiment ofthe invention in which the following is a specification reference being had to the accompanying drawings formingv a part thereof in which-- Figurel is a front elevation of that stage showing the proscenium arch and my invention in use. i

Figure 2 is a plan View of the set in set up or operative position.

Figure 3 is a detail vertical cross section showing the area between the back of the stage and the proscenium arch, and at approximately the middle portion of the stage and'indicating the appearance of the parts when viewed from the wings or off stage.

Figure Llis a view at right angles to Figure l with the wings and ceiling removed andshowing the structure of stage platform having incorporated therewith a water tank.

Figure 5 is a detail side elevation vof'one of the cranes or ceiling supports.

Figure 6 is an enlarged detail section in plan of one of the corner portions of the wing pieces.

Figure 7 is a detail side elevation of the upper mounting of one of the wing pieces.

TWith reference to Figures 'l and 3, 5 indicates a proscenium arch and 6 the back of the stage the platform of which is indieatet generally by a. ylhe usual divisions ct thc stage into upper, lower and intermediate side entrances are located between the back t3 and the sides of the proscenium arch 5 and in alignment with the sides of the said arch. ln that `various scene plots may require the 'use of any or all of these entrances and in some cases eliminate the use of entrances entirely, it would. serve no useful purpose to illustrate and describe the device oit this invention -inconnection with the various scene plots that could be proposed. rlherefore, the description will now proceed to set forth an embodiment which may be used for simple interiors, exteriors, and combinationsy of these or the like, it being` vobvious that where effects in accordance with other scene plots are required, these may be had simply by changes inform, degree, and arrangement or disposition of the element to be described.

ln Figures l and 2 the opposite sides of the stage are anked by the wing pieces 8 and 9 which extend from the tormentors (not shown) to the center piece 10 located in the back or upper part of the stage and cooperating therewith to give the effect of the interior `of aroom in a dwelling orthe like. The wing pieces 8 and 9 maybe ordinary pieces of canvas suitably decorated and adapted to be connected to frames 11 and 12 which may be of any desired construction. The frames 11 and 12 are joined on one side to frames 13 and 14 herein shown as corre- 'spending in point of size and structure to the frames 11 and 12 and disposed in angular relation thereto. Thefframes: 12 and 13 are furtherconnected to frames 15. and 16 which` maybe constructed to correspond with the frames 117 12, v13 and. 14 or be made up of .1 sections arranged in angular relation to each other as shown in Figure 2 andvfor a purpose hereinafterto be described. f The frames 15 and 16 are disposed in angular relation to the frames 11 ,12, 13 and 14 and cooperate therewith to? provide triangular shaped supports7 the corner portions of which are 'connected to suitablebraces 17 which serve to straighten the frames as shown in Figures 2 and 6. rThe braces 17 are located at the upper and intermediate portions of the supports and are arranged so as to intersect on approximately the central line of the supports and at these points suitable structures areprovided for securing the opposite end portions of vertically disposedshafts 18 and 19 which are iixedly secured to the supports through braces 17 and terminate in trunnions indicated by 19 in Figure 7 which trunnions are jcurnaled in bearings, one of which is shown in Figure 7 and indicated by 20, The lower bearings (not shown) being se cured to the stage plattform and the upper carried vby brackets 21 secured to any suitable support as, for instance the side and front walls of the stage.

Referring to Figures 27 3 and 5 a pair of cranes are disposed on opposite sides of the stage and in the region of the upper entrances thereof. rfhe masts 22v and 23 of' v these cranes may be of any suitable structure and at their lowerends are suitablyconnected to the stage platform The arms 24 and 25 are pivoted to the upper endsvof the masts 22 and 23 and are so constructed and arranged as to swing vertically on the masts.

As shown in Figures 3 and 5 that end of each arm adjacent to kthe back 6 or the stage is provided with a quadrant 26 or other suitable eopiivalent vfor supporting a flexible of the interior' of a dwelling or of the like.

It will be understood that the ceiling piece 3() which may be a piece of suitable decorated canvas or the like may be secured to the arms 24 and 25 in any desired manner.

The stage platform a of the present invention is shown in Figures 1 and 4 inclusive as having combined therewith a tank 31,`

this tank is located below the surface of the platform a, and normally covered by, two sections 32 and 33 thereof as rshown in Figure 4. rlhe sections 32 and 33 are made up of a plurality of hingedly united boards orstrips and each section has connected thereto the ends of a cable 34 which is trained upwardly over pulleys 35 and then downwardly and under the stage platform as shown in Figures 3 and 4, the structure being such that when the outwardly or downwardly eX- tending runs of the cable are pulled the sections 32 and 33 will be moved from the positions shown by dotted lines in Figure to that shown by full lines and thereby-expose the tank 31 through vthe platform a.

As shown in Figures 3 and 4 suitable counter weights 36 are provided for counterbalancing the weights of the sections A32 and` 33 when thesevv are in the full line position as shown in Figure 4. i 1 y From the foregoing it will beobserved that with the use of thisinvention the operation of changing from one scene to vanother may be effected in a manner that will practically eliminate any relatively appreciable amount of intermission in that when the parts are positioned as shown in Figures 1 and 2 the operation of changing or striking the scene may be kaccomplished simply by turning the supports so thatl they frames 11 and 12 will Vmove to the position occupied by the frames 15 and 16 in which lio event the frames 13 and 14 will be arranged i so as to be in View of the audience. 1n effecting a change in the wing pieces as just described a change may also be effected if desired in the ceiling piece. This can be accomplished by securing two ceiling pieces to the arms 24 and 25 byarranging the ceil-V ing pieces one upon the other so that inv or,- der to effect the change in the ceiling pieces it will be necessary only to detach the outer'V Lasagne lines in Figure 2 and in turning to these positions sufficient clearance would be provided for the downward move-ment of the arms 24 and 125 by reason of the angularity of the frames 15 and 16 which are shown by dotted lines in Figure 2. it is also to be observed that many attractive effects may be obtained by the use o-f the arms 24 and 25 in that these arms may serve to support on their upper sides, as viewed in Figure 31 structures representative of a water fall so that when the arms are lowered to the position shown in Figure 5 and the tank 3l uncovered by the sections 32 and 33 water caused to How downwardly and over the structure supported by the arms will be directed into the tank 31. It is to be observed that in the operation of setting up and striking scenery constructed in accordance with this invention a change in scenery may be effected by comparatively few stage hands and the device moreover permits carrying out of an infinitely large number of changes on relatively small stages, where hitherto only comparatively few changes could be made on account of inadequate space involving the use of many pieces of scenery. It is to be further observed that when the cranes and frames are set up as shown there is practically no limit to the number of different scenery changes that may be made with these structures. This is especially true of the frames as evidenced in a case where it may be supposed that the frames 13 and 14 have just been moved from the positions shown as being occupied by the frames 11 and 12 in Figures 1 and 2. In this connection the scenery on the frames 13 and 14 can be readily removed and other required scenery arranged on the said frames ready for use in the event that a third change is required during the progress of an act, all of which may be done in a rapid and expeditious manner. It will be observed by reference to Figure 3 that a space indicated by 38 is provided between the masts 22 and 23 and the frames. This space is provided for the reception of the backing or center piece 10 and its presence admits of the ready withdrawal or insertion of such backing or center piece or the equivalent thereof.

Thus it will be seen that the device of the present invention overcomes many disadvantageous features heretofore found in the construction of stage scenery in that the setting up and striking has required considerable time and the employment of a relatively large amount of labor and the use of which also required considerable stage floor space.

lt is obvious that those skilled in the art may vary the details of construction and arrangement of parts without departing from the spirit of my invention, and, therefore,1 Vdo not wish to be limited to such features except as may be required by the claims.

.What I `Claim is 1.-,

1. A-theatfrical stage platform having arranged thereon a pluralityof rotatable seen-- ery cari-.ying supports and a pivote-d I.ceiling piece constructedand. disposed so as to cooperate with said supports to constitute a scenery ceiling.

2. A theatrical stage platform having arranged thereon a plurality of rotatable scenery carrying supports and a pivoted and counter-balanced ceiling piece constructed and disposed so as to cooperate with said supports to constitute a. scenery ceiling.

3. A theatrical stage platform having arranged thereon and in the wings thereof a plurality of oppositely disposed scenery carrying supports, a crane disposed between said supports and having an arm arranged for vertically swinging movement, said arm being adapted for connection to a piece of scenery and constructed and disposed so as to support the same at an incline to the said supports or parallel with the upper end portions thereof.

4. A theatrical stage platform having arranged thereon and in the wings thereof, a plurality of oppositely disposed scenery carrying supports, a crane disposed between said supports and having a counterbalanced arm arranged for vertically swinging movement, said arm being adapted for connection to a piece of scenery and constructed and disposed so as to support the same at an incline to the said supports or parallel with the upper end portions thereof.

5. A theatrical stage platform having a tank in the front or outer portion thereof, a crane having an arm arranged for vertically swinging movement and adapted to be connected 'to a piece of scenery, said arm being constructed and disposed so as to support the scenery carried thereby so that the same will incline upwardly from the said tank. y

6. A theatrical stage platform having a tank in the front or outer portion thereof, a crane having a counter-balanced arm arranged forl vertically swinging movement and adapted to be connected to a piece of scenery, said arm being constructed and disposed so as to support the scenery carried thereby so that the same will incline upwardly from the said tank.

7. A theatrical stage platform having arranged thereon and at the back portion thereof cranes consisting of oppositely disposed masts and vertically swinging arms connected to the said .masts, said cranes being disposed in opposite wing portions of the stage and the arms thereof being adapted for supporting a piece of scenery, a pair of rotatable supports disposed between the cranes and thefront 'of the'stage and located angularly disposed frames, each of which is in opposite Wing portions thereof, said adapted to' be connected to apiece ofscenery 10 cranes being so constructed as to enable the and support the same.

arms thereof to support the scenery carried Signed at New York, inthe county of New thereby substantially parallel with the'upper York and .State of New York, this 24th' day endportions of the support when the arms of March', A. D. 1921.

a' are in horizontal position, and said supports including eaoh in its structure aplurality of STEPHENy HORN y f 

